On May 18, the Musée National de la Marine in Paris served as the backdrop for the official Kick-off of the European Partnership for Brain Health (EP BrainHealth). Around 130 stakeholders from across Europe and beyond gathered to breathe life into the vision of this collaborative network.
To mark the official kick-off of EP BrainHealth in Paris, Catherine Marquer (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR), welcomed the guests to the museum auditorium overlooking the nearby Eiffel Tower
The series of keynotes commenced with opening remarks from Kasia Jurczak, Head of Unit ‘Combatting Diseases’ at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, who highlighted the critical importance of brain health. “It is an area touching all of us, not a niche area,” she stated, noting that neurological conditions affect one in three people worldwide and that the true societal impact is even greater, as these conditions also affect families, caregivers, and wider support networks. Jurczak emphasised that brain health is central to a knowledge-based economy, impacting resilience, learning capacity, and long-term competitiveness.
With a combined commitment of almost half a billion euros from EU and national and regional budgets, the Partnership is designed to move “faster from knowledge to value” through better prevention, earlier diagnosis and better treatment options.
Representing the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), Director-General of the Life Science Division Veronika von Messling drew an inspiring parallel to the Artemis space mission. “I think this Partnership very much fits the definition of a moonshot,” she remarked, explaining that such ambitious goals can only be achieved if all disciplines and stakeholders come together. She highlighted a fundamental shift within the EP BrainHealth toward a positive, holistic vision of brain health across the entire lifespan.
She emphasised the German government’s strong commitment to the collective mission by taking over the coordinating role in the Partnership and noting that the BMFTR was contributing nearly 50 million euros – plus providing administrative support for the coordination office realized by the DLR project management agency (DLR Projektträger). This commitment is complemented by substantial investments and expertise contributed by partner organisations across Europe and beyond, reflecting the truly collaborative nature of the Partnership.
Von Messling also pointed out that “successful prevention is what we will get if we push personalised medicine to its very limits”. By identifying individual health risks and trajectories, von Messling argued, science will eventually be able to intervene so early that it effectively prevents the development of disease entirely. She also stressed the vital role of patients in the Partnership, citing the principle: “Nothing for us without us”.
A Decade of Discovery and Shared Missions
In a warm video message, Nacer Boubenna, Scientific Director and Head of the Biology and Health Department at the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space (MESRE), celebrated the Kick-off in the “City of Life Science Innovation”. He described the Partnership as a combination of years of collective effort, aiming to build a coordinated ecosystem that strengthens Europe’s capacity to treat brain disorders and promote mental well-being.
“The European Partnership for Brain Health is now taking the flag of future,” he declared, noting the pivotal role played by the French partners in shaping the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). This cornerstone document, developed via ANR and INSERM, establishes the overarching priorities and main lines of action for the EP BrainHealth. He underscored how the EP’s goals align with French national priorities like the ‘Grande Cause Nationale’ for mental health.
Friederike Bathe, Head of the EP BrainHealth Coordination Office at DLR Projektträger, detailed the framework structures and key metrics of EP BrainHealth. The scale of the initiative is impressive: the Partnership currently brings together 64 participating institutions from 36 countries within and beyond Europe. The partners contribute approximately 342 million euros to the budget, complemented by EU co-funding amounting to 146 million euros. She emphasised that this unprecedented scale reflects a shared commitment by funders, researchers, clinicians, patient representatives, and policymakers across Europe to advance brain health through coordinated action. Bathe also outlined the consortium’s overarching goals and explained how the ten work packages of EP BrainHealth feed into four central hubs focusing on topics that are at the core of the EU and many member states’ priorities.
Grounding the discussion in scientific reality, Thomas Gasser, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for EP BrainHealth and brain researcher based in Tübingen, outlined the challenges ahead. He noted that “brain health is not only the absence of disease” and spans cognitive, sensory, and emotional domains.
Gasser pointed to a vast “window of opportunity” for prevention, as biological changes typically precede clinical symptoms by decades. He also noted that the heterogeneity of brain disorders is both a challenge and an opportunity. To address this, he called on the community to break down the silos between research and practice, allowing for a collaborative approach to harnessing the shared mechanisms of brain disorders.
The Ecosystem: Finding Solutions Together
The second half of the meeting featured a high-level panel, moderated by Frédéric Destrebecq, Executive Director of the European Brain Council (EBC), which delved into the practicalities of building a functional brain health ecosystem.
Orla Galvin, Executive Director of the European Federation of Neurological Associations (EFNA), highlighted the “diagnostic odyssey” many face, often waiting more than a year for a diagnosis. “Clinicians are only as powerful as the tools that they have access to,” she noted, calling for more tailored treatments that go beyond a “one size fits all” approach. Galvin also noted that combining neuroscience advancements with public awareness and investment spaces like the Partnership is key to reducing stigma and enhancing overall quality of life of people living with neurological conditions.
Brenda Penninx, President-elect of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), picked up on the scientific requirements, stating that concerning mental health the field would need “precision psychiatry and cross-disorder approaches and also an improved disease monitoring”. To manage conditions like depression, researchers need massive datasets and cross-border collaboration. However, she warned that data sharing is becoming a “legal nightmare” due to regulatory complexities, urging for a focus on harmonisation.
From the industry side, Tarek Samad, Global Head of Research and Corporate Patents at Lundbeck, brought a message of optimism, noting that “there has never been a more exciting time to be in neuroscience”. He advocated for moving toward modern drug discovery that follows the “causal root and causal mechanism” of biology rather than just phenomenology. Samad stressed that public-private partnerships are an underutilised lever: “It takes a village to come up with an idea”.
Venture capital investor at Newfund, Pierre-Yves Frouin, provided the investor’s view, stressing that “brain health is not a niche issue” for capital markets. He urged for more open data in Europe to train AI models, noting that many European startups currently rely on foreign data. He also called for a more unified European market to prevent future “European giants” from becoming “American giants”.
Closing the panel, EP BrainHealth Coordinator Ulrike Bußhoff (DLR Projektträger) acknowledged that the partnership was specifically designed to address these systemic fragmentations. “This is the first time we can create critical mass in unsiloed funding,” she concluded, expressing confidence that the journey will successfully create an innovation-friendly ecosystem that is both science-based and patient-inclusive.
